A compilation of loot I gained over past 2-3 months, surprisingly this one is dominated by Model kits, especially Kotobukiya. While the size took quite a room, in terms of overall value it is actually falling on the more affordable side compared to other loots this year. Considering you can get 2-4 model kits of comparable size for a price of the single Japanese diecast toy.
30 MF Shakunetsu not Gai model kit comes with the armor gimmick just like the original Yoroiden toys had and the lineup seems to work as intended with relative less risk compared to Tamashi nation lineup for untested reboot. A minor nitpick however, the new rendition of Yoroiden doesn't seem to come with face mask for the helmet part which the old series had but we will see how the new anime turned out.
As someone who watched the old Yoroiden series, Shin Yoroiden doesn't seem to promising as reboot. Considering the overly modern character design rather clash with the traditional Samurai aesthetics. Shakunetsu no Gai wasn't too bad as Rekka no Ryo replacement but Kourin no Seiji replacement's character design is rather questionable. In any case while I will skip Rekka no Ryo since I already have both version of Rekka no Ryo, I might look forward for the Water and Earth Samurai counterpart in 30MF lineup.
Personally I am not too familiar with Xros Wars myself since the last main Digimon series I ever watched was Frontier and it was not even complete ride. But I did got my share of exposure with the series during the early days of Realm of Darkness where I still regularly browse /m/ on 4chan and Xros Wars was frequently discussed on daily basis with Lilithmon often included in discussion as fanservice.
Good thing I was not really familiar with Xros Wars otherwise might get tempted to get this one since I am personally quite curious why Bandai decide to give such treatment for Xros Wars after a relatively long silence. I might even consider marathoning Digimon series all over again since I never get to watch the series in its original format.
Cheat Mode Farming in Another World is basically your typical Isekai where the main protagonist got betrayed by his initial comrade but turns out possess broken skill which let him thrive. Yuru Fuwa follows the typical trope where the main protagonist is from oppressed working class but somehow make it big in the new world eventually having harem for himself whic is typical wish fulfillment for the target audience reader.
In terms of illustration quality, Yuru Fuwa is quite solid as expected for this genre of manga and the mangaka likely have his share of experience in Doujin industry to be able to pull off good quality work with generous R18 Fanservice. Just like many Isekai manga, Yuru Fuwa does overglorify Japan as usual despite the reality are not exactly rose tinted glass. But what catches my attention is the Mangaka earnest attempt to make Yuru Fuwa to have its share of hilarious moments which 90s shonen readers could highly appreciate. Nowhere at the level of Peter Grill's level of hilarity but it is relatively good for an Isekai manga. Yuru Fuwa is definitely a good candidate if you look for works similar Isekai Nonbiri with some extra fanservice delivered on top.
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Overall GGG Quattro Scale Figure is your typical premium figure by Megahouse. But this product serves as great force multiplier for any Hyaku Shiki collectors since quality physical rendition of Quattro remains to be a rarity. I got mine because I had MRS FA Hyaku Shiki and the pairing results is satisfying, it is still a surprise that the MRS still cost more than the larger scale figure.
I did have other Megahouse Figure for Gundam series character that yet to be reviewed and I still look for opportunity to give them the review. Let's see if I can find any opportunity once my worklife balance is less hectic
This version of Nice Nature is sculpted in victory pose with her default racing costume. Nice Nature might not be particularly strong Uma Musume but her race costume arguably one of the better among starter Uma Musume.
Not to mention Nice Nature one of the best when it comes to housewife aura. Not an achievement to be underestimated when Uma Musume is filled with many waifus who are strong contenders in this department yet Nice Nature reigns on top. She is relatively popular in JP fanbase but not sure if she received the same fame considering Goldship dominates the chart in global server.
Considering I already have Figma Nice Nature and the hefty price tag, this PVC figure is a skip for me. But I don't actually mind double dip on her Cheerleader version if there are affordable alternative which might be likely considering this version of PVC figure got released last year. Might discuss about it in near future.
For quite a long time, 30 Minutes sisters elude my radar since I wasn't quite into Mecha musume during its inception and Kotobukiya seems to provide overall better alternative. However the latest entry do caught my attention. Dubbed as 30MS Sharlona this is a hybrid model kit using existing molded parts from 30 Minutes Sisters and Fantasy to create a single product which possess fantasy and mecha musume vibe at the same time. Scheduled for January 2026 release, 30 MS Sharlona will be sold for 3600 Yen SRP.
Bandai Gunpla division seems to like making blunders after another. Their overseas image are not as pristine as before due too much focus on domestic market which in turn cause shortage issues for overseas distributors. Their blunders repeated again with this new 30MS product. 30 MS Sharlona could have been breakthrough product for Bandai's mecha musume lineup under regular release, but they somehow decide to make it as P-Bandai item. To be honest this is not exactly a strategically good move since Chinese hobby manufacturers are more than happy to make good use of this blunder by Bandai to seize more market on overseas consumer.
As for the product itself, 30 MS Sharlona is a well made one for something created from almagamation of several previous 30 Minutes model kit. The color scheme and skimpy armor clearly reminiscent of Female fighter from Dragon Quest series and would perfectly fit the role of Valkyrie class for fantasy themed mecha musume collectors. 30 MS Sharlona's sword is based on Liber Knight but the recolor is definitely perfect and elevate the value manyfold. If you are fed up with Bandai's P-Bandai nonsense for 30MS Sharlona, there is always Animester Dragon Knight Galahad available around the corner which offers decent value for Mecha musume as well.
Final Fantasy Tactics was a highly acclaimed JRPG in PSX and it was due to Yasumi Matsuno's briliant talent as Director. FFT stood out among JRPG peaks not only due to its gameplay but also immersiveness of Ivalice, which Matsuno had a personal hand in its creation whom he infused the richness of Gray morality storyline just like Tactics Ogre series. Returning on Final Fantasy Tactics Advance as producer, Matsuno lent his briliant talent once again in this game and made one of the best JRPG in GBA when it comes to gameplay.
While this product is released as Non-scale, with the price tag being considered you can expect 20+cm tall from Kotobukiya's Kizuna Kaiser. Kotobukiya had its share of extensive experience with combiner mecha especially from Yuusha series so we can expect decent product out of this despite the model kit will not come with combiner gimmick. Kotobukiya also will provide Preorder extra parts bonus in the which consist of Scepter weapon and open chest part for those who preordered on their website.
In Arknights, Theresa is one of the key characters that died off before the main story sets in and had profound bond with Doktah to the extent reaching the status of main wife in Arknights Fandom. Prior to the main story, Theresa is the King of Sarkaz who served as the leader of Babel faction trying to save Terra from imminent world ending disaster and saving her Sarkaz race from their fate. But due to her bond disrupt Doctor's original objective, she was taken out by Doctor's former partner PRTS in assassination that somehow involved Doctor and caused his amnesia. However as Amiya gains the status as King of Sarkaz, Theresa got herself technically resurrected as physical memory called Civilight Aeterna due to Amiya's wish.
In a way, Civilight Aeterna serves as the possible workaround for player to have Theresa as playable character without disrupting the storyline. She is 6* Supporter class who is unlockable in Ch14 main story who performs supportive role with some offensive skills if required. I am quite sure Priestess will follow up eventually as Nendoroid since she will not let Theresa to have Doktah for herself even in physical form.
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One of the specimen I obtained is a red mini car with 245 Block Counts which I obtained for very cheap price for Australian standard. Overall Anko Blocks offers relatively fun Brick Model experience from a generic Chinese brick model. Quite sure the manufacturers are the same ones with the one whose products sold on KKV/OHsome some varieties are nice indeed. There will be more coming from this series and if you ever visit Australia and look for souvenirs/gifts, go to K-Mart and look for Anko Brick models. Plenty of selections available and often on sale.
One of the truly luxury release for Diaclone by Takara! Gran Cross being the posterboy of Diaclone lineup is a massive behemoth which consist of DA-95 Robot Base Ground and DA-100 Flying Fortress now available once again in a complete set in the form of DA-120 Royal Defender! Scheduled for February 2026 release, Diaclone DA-120 Royal Defender will be sold for 120000 Yen SRP.
So tracing back to this memory, turns out After Burst is made by Masaya, the dev behind series like Assault Suit Valken on SNES which is another good mecha game.Surprisingly the mecha aesthetics on After Burst game cover heavily resemble Jegan or GM with slighly heavier build and perhaps this game also contribute something to the development of Valken. If you seek something with heavy Mecha aesthetics on Gameboy, After Burst would be a worthy candidate to consider.
Historical fiction set in ancient west is a rare genre in Japanese manga due to the depth of research and historical literacy it demands. Yet Historie stands out as one of the finest specimen from this niche. The story follows the life of Eumenes, Alexander the Great's secretary and explore the dawn of Hellenic era golden age through his eyes,
From the available product information, this Tamashii Nation version of Metal Gear Rex is essentially the diecast version of Kotobukiya Metal Gear Rex model kit. Three to four times the price of MGS Model Kit might justify if the product have quality diecast parts. But for those interested, Chogokin Metal Gear Rex is not actually the most expensive version of the iconic mecha from legendary series by Hideo Kojima. Around a decade ago, there was a Hongkong manufacturer called ThreeA that made a 500 USD version of Metal Gear Rex that stood 19 inches. This one probably still doesnt match up to that version but decent upper mid-end collectible.
I am quite sure Metal Gear Ray will likely getting the same treatment if Konami's objective remain consistent considering they are still making money from the nostalgia with MGS1 remake is not far from impossible.
To this day, Tears of Vermilion is still my personal favorite despite Song of the Ocean plays more important role in the overarching storyline. TOV storyline might be old school by JRPG standard but there is always a charm in seeing the sheer will of humanity to defy against the fate ordained by ancient gods and an unbreakable bond of friendship that transcends the depths of hell.
In this hero archive post, I will sort the Hero rarity starting from the highest, starting from main character then move onto UR and until R rarity hero. Considering El Phildin is the first part that Fowgames worked on Gagharv Mobile, bulk of the Hero characters belong to this region. Despite the inevitable tragic fate, I salute Fowgames Dev team tremendous effort for Gagharv mobile even if it is not reciprocated properly in financial term.
But at very least Fowgames efforts until the end of Global server resonated with me and as such I present this homage! Apologies in advance if I am rather subjective with the list since I will make the entry of the character based on their debut in chronological timeline.
Katamari series has been always an awesome abstract adventure game where you control the Prince of Cosmos and roll a ball objects called Katamari and absorb anything along the way where the game usually climax with you rolling the world or universe. The premise may seem absurd at first, but Katamari series has always been a fun stress relieving game which you certainly need when you reach adulthood.
After more than a decade long break, Once upon Katamari try to offer something different compared to its predecessor where it provides more variety of era settings that Prince of Cosmos could time travel to and roll his Katamari to oblivion! This might be a fresh of new air since the past Katamari series mostly focus on modern settings and never really explore pre-modern eras with some few outliers. The main source of Katamari fun is the opportunity to roll into hundreds of variety of objects and the new direction that Once upon Katamari is certainly something that can be looked forward to.
I will definitely look for Physical copy on this one just like what I did with We Love Katamari.
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Among Wandering Earth Brick Model I have obtained, Barrage Phantom is probably the weaker design in terms of aesthetics. To put it simply, it is a low efficiency frontline unit due to having low caliber Machine Gun as its main armaments with Missiles as supporting weapon. In theory it will have hard time to put a dent on any mecha unit on the same weight class as its armaments are meant to mow down the inferior units like infantry on one sided combat especially the thin arms are very vulnerable to be destroyed.
At any rate, I will finish my Wandering Earth with three units only since Brick model are not exactly suitable format for this and will cover the rest of this review series eventually.
This version of 1/7 Admire Vega figure probably fell on more expensive category but the details done by Phat, especially on her constellation themed costume are well made. In Uma Musume, I do have some fascination toward Admire Vega despite she is not particularly good Uma Musume in competitive mode.
Her character design apart from being a strong reminder of Amiya is appealing especially with extensive use of constellation iconography in her aesthetics. I didn't remember much back then but Admire Vega has some tragic background incorporated as part of her design as she is depicted to appear slightly gloomy due to constant reminder of losing her sister during childhood and her career puts the player as the role of her trainer to resolve her past and move on to better future.
Amongst Uma Musume characters, she is another one that I look forward to the Figma rendition along with several Uma Musume. In the future I might even consider to make a Figma wishlist as well.
From the first glance, Lycoris is pretty much repaint version of Mandala with the color scheme coming in purple/dark which makes it closer to Huckebein. For 20 RMB price difference, Lycoris comes with extra accessories in the form of extra armaments which is what Huckebein got. For extra 20 RMB, you got yourself a Black Hole cannon and Chakram Caster. Given my backlog, I really doubt that I will obtain this one. But I might change my mind when I got to see how my copy of Mandala model kit turns out.
One of the classic manga that I read during high school and paid a revisit recently as I explored another works of the mangaka. Naruto might reign supreme as the most popular Shinobi manga, but if you want something more explicit and intense, Basilisk is what you are looking for. When Romeo and Juliet into ninja series, you got yourself Basilisk! Named after the mystical deadly creature that can kill any living creature, Basilisk is the tale of tragic star-crossed lovers who caught into the deadly feuds of their clan due to a whim of their lord.
Firstly, I am very thankful for the support of the loyal visitors of this blog. I might have been amped up the productivity of this blog over past 2 years due to the opportunity available in my current role and I will keep striving to deliver more well written contents that align with what always have been featured in this blog.
I might consider to do some giveaway but due to Blogger platform limit, it is not exactly viable. Anyway in near future, I might renew the Banner of this blog while retaining the same spirit that the Blog has been always been. Considering Realm of Darkness do deserve some makeover with its milestones that it has achieved up until now.
As part of celebration, if anyone interested to come up with request, please do comment in this post and I might likely consider it if it aligns with Realm of Darkness portfolio.
Among the available physical renditions of David Martinez, Threezero 1/6 stands out for several reasons. Apart from being 30% cheaper compared to typical 1/6 Hot Toys, the fabric detail for David Martinez' clothing looks quite good. Obviously this version of David Martinez does not showcase his Sandevistan hijinks since it is the early version of David as Edgerunners before leading his own crew. I apparently missed Threezero Lucy which was announced in June this year, probably due to the face sculpt is not exactly the best. But at very least, Threezero's David sculpt got some improvement. Looking forward to see if later version of David will ever get any physical rendition in the future.
When I played Uma Musume JP, King Halo was one of my favorite character. Not exactly easy to train Uma Musume due to her lengthy requirement but she is a well-made Ojou sama waifu. King Halo is part of the Golden Generation Uma Musume along with Special Week, El Condor Pasa, Grass Wonder and Seiun Sky and she specialize in Sprint race course. King Halo requires better resources especially inheritance to get somewhere with her but she will prove her worth for the Trainer who could give the proper resources that she needs.
All I can say Kotobukiya nailed her design spot on and among her Golden Generation peers, King Halo is my top favorite along with Grass Wonder. What she lacks in racing prowess is made up by her classy act. Would lurk around for her Kotobukiya figure rerun considering this one of their better specimen for Uma Musume PVC figure but personally I would definitely get her Figma in a heartbeat.
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For the first Super Mobility lineup we got ourselves 4 Progenitor effect Mecha along with 2 alternate variants for Date Masamune and Takeda Shingen. In this review I will just provide the overall gist of the expected content obtained out of the whole box set and might follow up in the future if I am interested to continue. Overall Sembo's Super Mobility Blindbox could rival Blokees Galaxy in terms of sculpt, but playability is still somewhat a subject of argument. The only apparent downsides of the toys are that the chemicals sprayed on the plastic parts of the product are quite irritant which makes it not particularly suitable for Children. The QC is also quite an issue since my copy of Marquis Wucheng missed the head part which will be very apparent when you look from behind.
I would say Sembo's Super Mobility are quite decent that warrant continuation with other mecha series and I still look forward to series like Metal Cardbot available for mass consumer market.
In Vs battler you play as Mecha Pilot on two available factions Valiant and Sirius which have different mecha style akin to Zgok and Rick Dias. The game is purely action where you control a Mecha on seek and destroy missions in Labyrinth that differs in map variation as the game progresses. The gameplay is relatively simple as you only have Fist melee and Charged Projectile as available armaments to take down the enemy robots. Map Awareness play key role in Vs Battler as you will have to rely on flank ambush to clear the stages as you are usually outnumbered and direct slugfest never end well as you will lose health very fast in this action. Given I have no idea what I am doing back then, I often end up accidentally destroying my AI teammate from friendly fire.
What makes Vs Battler still remain in my memory is due to the unique gameplay which could have been incorporated more in modern mecha game. Imagine a co-op Mecha game where you navigate dark labyrinth where proper teamwork and maneuvering really matters, the incorporation of Survival theme into action would be quite something to behold.
This post will serve as the portal for SMC Mechatalk and SMC related Sluban Brick model reviews for easier access of readers who wish to navigate SMC related content in Realm of Darkness. This might be the last post for SMC at least until there are noteworthy development related to this series.
After playing for several weeks in Global server, my initial impression with Mecharashi is overall quite a positive one. In terms of baseline design, Mecharashi is rather similar to Girls Frontline 2 whether gameplay or gacha but with mecha flavor. Overall Mecharashi is a solid mecha game albeit still thoroughly have Chinese gacha game design at its core.
